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March 29, 2024, 09:35:27 am

Author Topic: Vce French or Vce Specialist  (Read 5724 times)  Share 

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em_ssi

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Vce French or Vce Specialist
« on: May 19, 2020, 03:14:05 pm »
0
Hey all! :)

Just wanted to ask for some more opinions on a dilemma I am facing.

I only have one other subject available to choose from and it has to be in between French and Specialist mathematics (all other subjects are prerequisites).

The scaling for spesh is about 1-2 points higher than French, however if French is less effort, I’m willing to scope it out.

I do not have a strong preference for either one, and in short, I want to know which subject can give me the best results while spending the least amount of time.

All opinions are valid!!

Thank you so much for your time, it is much appreciated  😊


Chocolatemilkshake

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #1 on: May 19, 2020, 03:33:23 pm »
+9
Hi em_ssi,

I do both Specialist and French and I would definitely say they're of equal difficulty for me, but in different ways.
Specialist - Difficult in the fact that the concepts are hard and may take a while to get your head around.
French - Difficult because you must spend a lot of time developing vocabulary, grammar, listening skills, oral skills, etc.

They are pretty much at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of subject choices but both involve persistence. Whether french is "less effort" solely depends on your current french and maths skills. For example, if you are naturally quick at picking up concepts, than spec will be easier for you then someone else who struggles with maths. Similarly, if you have already got strong french skills it will be easier to build upon this in VCE.

I'd say pick the one which you enjoy the most, rather than basing it on scaling or how much effort is required. The few points extra in scaling will make very little difference (as they both scale high compared to other subjects), but how much work you are willing to put into them will dramatically impact your scores. Enjoyment does more commonly lead to success.

In all honesty, I'm expecting similar results in french and spec because for me, they are pretty much of equal difficulty. So I'd say equal effort for both subjects will yield pretty similar results (obviously depending on your current maths and french skills). Ultimately, your selection should come down to what you want to do more...
1. Solving complex maths equations that can get pretty frustrating and will take a large chunk of your time.
2. Learning a language, involving grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, culture, oral (and sometimes repetitive memorising) that also will take a large chunk of your time.

To be honest, neither will take "less effort" unless you are at a significantly higher level in one already.

Out of curiosity, what other subjects are you doing?

Anyway, hope this helps a little!
2021-2025: BMedSci/M.D @ Monash

lm21074

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #2 on: May 19, 2020, 03:35:44 pm »
+8
Hi em_ssi!

Welcome to the ATAR Notes forum :)

French and Spec are obviously very different subjects. As a general rule of thumb when picking subjects, it is important to consider enjoyment and strengths. So, which subject do you think you'll enjoy more? Where do your strengths lie? You might also want to consider variety. For example, if you have mostly maths and science-y subjects, then French could give you a bit of a break from these.

As Chocolatemilkshake described above, picking high scaling subjects does not always give you the greatest results. For example, a student might study Spec and get a 30, but do Further and get a 45. In this case, the student's scaled score for Further will be higher than what they receive for Spec.

Hope this helps :)
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2022: Science / Arts @ Monash

Sine

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2020, 04:06:28 pm »
+5
Hey all! :)

Just wanted to ask for some more opinions on a dilemma I am facing.

I only have one other subject available to choose from and it has to be in between French and Specialist mathematics (all other subjects are prerequisites).

The scaling for spesh is about 1-2 points higher than French, however if French is less effort, I’m willing to scope it out.

I do not have a strong preference for either one, and in short, I want to know which subject can give me the best results while spending the least amount of time.

All opinions are valid!!

Thank you so much for your time, it is much appreciated  😊


Chocolatemilkshake and lm21074 have already given out some really good advice but maybe a less direct answer would be to consider a different third subject? As you say you don't have a strong preference for either subject and doing it for the scaling (which is generally advised against, I'm sure you will be able to find explanations all around ATAR Notes on why that is).

Both of these subjects are quite a time-intensive so if your main goal is to minimise that these are probably not the types of subjects you want to be looking at.

Lilyyyy

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #4 on: May 19, 2020, 04:48:43 pm »
+6
french and specialist are very different subjects, but I'd say both very time-consuming. Like what sine have said, if you are looking to find one that's less time-consuming, consider another subject. That may be better for you when looking at the all of your subjects combined.

in my opinion french requires more memorisation and language skills (obviously) --> look at you current subjects; do you enjoy studying languages (English) and/or some humanity subjects

in terms of specialist, I would say it's quite competitive because most people doing it are very capable in maths, so ask yourself if you enjoy maths subjects in general, are you a strong maths person?

just providing another perspective: language subjects are tested in various forms; writing, speaking (oral presentation), listening, and you do a variety of homework/preparation tasks. Whereas for maths subjects it's really just SACs in the form of tests, and doing exercises/practice exams on the regular. Think about which you would enjoy more.
2019: Maths Methods [41] | Biology [39]
2020: English | Specialist Maths | Chemistry | Further Maths

K888

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #5 on: May 19, 2020, 04:56:01 pm »
+7
Would just also like to chip in that often you won't do as well in a subject you don't find interesting/enjoyable. I definitely found this to be the case - I was a lot less motivated for some of my subjects so didn't score anywhere near as well in them because I just didn't want to spend any time on them (and these were subjects that scaled up). On the other hand, I did some subjects that didn't scale up at all and they were my best subjects by far, not because of any scaling but because I was interested in them and thus was a lot more happy to put in effort for them.

em_ssi

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #6 on: July 02, 2020, 09:53:44 pm »
+1
Hi em_ssi,

I do both Specialist and French and I would definitely say they're of equal difficulty for me, but in different ways.
Specialist - Difficult in the fact that the concepts are hard and may take a while to get your head around.
French - Difficult because you must spend a lot of time developing vocabulary, grammar, listening skills, oral skills, etc.

They are pretty much at opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of subject choices but both involve persistence. Whether french is "less effort" solely depends on your current french and maths skills. For example, if you are naturally quick at picking up concepts, than spec will be easier for you then someone else who struggles with maths. Similarly, if you have already got strong french skills it will be easier to build upon this in VCE.

I'd say pick the one which you enjoy the most, rather than basing it on scaling or how much effort is required. The few points extra in scaling will make very little difference (as they both scale high compared to other subjects), but how much work you are willing to put into them will dramatically impact your scores. Enjoyment does more commonly lead to success.

In all honesty, I'm expecting similar results in french and spec because for me, they are pretty much of equal difficulty. So I'd say equal effort for both subjects will yield pretty similar results (obviously depending on your current maths and french skills). Ultimately, your selection should come down to what you want to do more...
1. Solving complex maths equations that can get pretty frustrating and will take a large chunk of your time.
2. Learning a language, involving grammar, vocabulary, listening, reading, culture, oral (and sometimes repetitive memorising) that also will take a large chunk of your time.

To be honest, neither will take "less effort" unless you are at a significantly higher level in one already.

Out of curiosity, what other subjects are you doing?

Anyway, hope this helps a little!

Hi! I don't know how to reply so hopefully this works?

Thank you so much for your advice and your time. My other subjects in year 12 will be english, chem, and then spesh or french or bio.

I saw that you did bio in 2019. Is it alright if i PM you to ask for your advice?

Would just also like to chip in that often you won't do as well in a subject you don't find interesting/enjoyable. I definitely found this to be the case - I was a lot less motivated for some of my subjects so didn't score anywhere near as well in them because I just didn't want to spend any time on them (and these were subjects that scaled up). On the other hand, I did some subjects that didn't scale up at all and they were my best subjects by far, not because of any scaling but because I was interested in them and thus was a lot more happy to put in effort for them.

Ahhh I see. Just out of curiosity, did your teacher affect your interest in the subject? Lets say you do not find a subject particularly interesting, but you have a really good and engaging teacher. Would you still recommend taking the subject?

mod edit:merged posts you can quote multiple posts into a single post :)
« Last Edit: July 02, 2020, 09:59:53 pm by insanipi »

Chocolatemilkshake

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #7 on: July 03, 2020, 06:31:20 am »
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I saw that you did bio in 2019. Is it alright if i PM you to ask for your advice?
Sure thing!
2021-2025: BMedSci/M.D @ Monash

K888

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Re: Vce French or Vce Specialist
« Reply #8 on: July 03, 2020, 01:18:36 pm »
+5
Ahhh I see. Just out of curiosity, did your teacher affect your interest in the subject? Lets say you do not find a subject particularly interesting, but you have a really good and engaging teacher. Would you still recommend taking the subject?

Hard to say. I think it would definitely help if you have a really engaging teacher. But just think about whether that's gonna sustain you for the whole year.

When I did year 12, my methods teacher was amazing and easily my favourite teacher. It was still my worst subject by far because whilst the teacher made things better, it didn't mitigate the fact that I found the subject difficult and not particularly interesting.
I quite liked my classes but really struggled doing any study/work outside of class for the subject because I didn't have my teacher making the work a bit more engaging or helping me out.

Subject specific - obviously I didn't do Specialist but I can compare it to Methods. For me French was heaps easier than Methods and I liked that it used a different part of my brain.

Ultimately though, this is all just my personal experience and opinion. You won't necessarily have the same experiences as me! :)